1.
How to Build an Audience and
Sell Your Own Products
With Ben Adler @ KeywordChef.com

2.
About Ben
● Started building niche
websites in 2007
● Bought and sold sites
● Built various FB groups
● Launched Keyword Chef in
2021

3.
I want to help you do two things:
1. Be inspired to build
build your own
audience
2. Make your journey
easier

4.
Who’s Ready?

5.
What exactly is an “audience”?
An audience is a group of people who:
● Know your name and face
● Follow or subscribe to you in some way
○ Mailing list, Youtube, FB group, Twitter, etc…

6.
Popular examples of people with audiences
Neil Patel Gary Vaynerchuk Grant Cardone

7.
Why do I need an audience? Aren’t niche sites
enough?
Niche sites still work, but the game is changing:
● Google algorithm updates can destroy sites
overnight
● Many people are looking for video content
● Big players are outsourcing, using expired domains,
and using AI content

8.
Building your own
audience allows
you to ignore the
competition

9.
5 Reasons why
you should start
building your own
audience today

10.
Reason 1: Avoid Google updates
Google updates can destroy your site overnight

11.
Reason 2: Less competition
● No need to constantly fight
in the SERPs
● When you have an audience,
you can deliver new content
to them without worrying
about SEO

12.
Reason 3: Easier to sell products (or affiliate)
● When you have an audience
that already likes and trusts
you, selling products
becomes much easier
● You can continue to sell to
the same audience over and
over again

13.
Reason 4: Connect with influencers
● It’s much easier to connect with others that share
similar audiences
● These influencers can help with:
○ Backlinks
○ Cross-promotion
○ Being an affiliate for your product

14.
Reason 5: More traffic sources
Not only do you get more traffic,
but you get to cross promote
different traffic sources
● Youtube
● Mailing list
● Fb groups, etc…

15.
Audiences give you more
long-term traffic and
income

16.
So, how do you
get started?
?

17.
The overall strategy
1. Pick your niche
2. Choose a platform
3. Optimize your profile
4. Create content

18.
Goal is to funnel traffic to your own list
Join a platform
Funnel those users to
your own list
[You]
[Facebook,
Youtube, Reddit]
[Mailing list,
group, etc]

19.
Step 1 - Pick a niche you know well and are
passionate about
● If you don’t understand your
niche, it will be much harder
to build an audience
● My first two software
companies failed because I
didn’t understand the niches
I was in

20.
Finding your niche
● Niches don’t need to be
marketing related
● As long as you can help
someone with a topic, it
can be a niche
● What can you help teach
someone else?

21.
A few niche ideas
● Fitness
● Art
● Cooking
● Finances
● Ham Radio
● Fishing
● Tiny Houses
● Wood working
● Programming
● Travel

22.
Step 2 - Choose a platform
● The easiest and fastest way
to build your audience is to
join existing platforms.
● It’s easier to take advantage
of existing traffic than create
your own. These platforms
already have millions of
visits!

23.
Platforms like…

24.
Why I love Facebook
● Every niche is on Facebook
● Very personal (not anonymous)
● Easy to interact
● Easy to optimize your profile
● All you need to do is write
content (no video required)
● Easy to create your own group

25.
Step 3 - Optimizing your profile
● Have a professional looking profile picture - ask your
photographer friend, no selfies!
● Change cover photo (use Canva for free) to advertise your
website or funnel. This could advertise a landing page,
mailing list, or group.
● Change bio to explain what you do and add your link
● The goal is to direct users on your profile to your funnel

26.
Step 4 - Join the discussion!
● Start interacting with people in your niche
● Create discussions and answer people’s questions with the
most helpful answer possible
● Make sure you are sharing real life results. This will build
credibility.
● Okay to be a little promotional at times, but not spammy.

27.
How should I create content?
● Easy rule is “document, don’t
create”. Share what you are
already learning and working
on.
● The more helpful and detailed
you are, the better.
● Most people are lazy. Standing
out is easy when you put in the
extra effort and are consistent.

28.
Content you can make:
● Answer questions
● Case studies
● Share experiments
● Personal opinions
● Helpful guides
● Video Tutorials
● Industry news

29.
It doesn’t matter how
much you know, but
how much you can
help people.

30.
Be yourself - there’s no need to act like a “guru”
Remember to be:
● Helpful
● Consistent
● Compassionate

31.
More tips for engagement
● In the beginning, answer
everyone's questions
● Don’t make people feel
stupid
● Let people know they are
cared for and heard
● People notice how you treat
others

32.
Compassion isn’t a
marketing tactic, it’s
a value that helps
with marketing

33.
Objection: But doesn’t this take a long time?

34.
Yes, it takes time, but…
● Once you have an audience,
the hard part is done
● Your audience is the most
important asset
● Be patience and show up
everyday. Remember, you are
building a business - it will pay
off!

35.
Okay, I have an
audience,
now what?
?

36.
It’s time to monetize!
Personal Brand:
● Sell your own
product and services
Product Expert:
● Become an affiliate
for someone else
…Or both!

37.
Some product ideas
● Courses
● Group coaching
● Software tools
● Paid newsletters
● Paid Directories
● Consulting
● E-Books
● Templates
● Graphics/designs
● Physical products

38.
Don’t worry about the
competition - market
saturation is a myth!

39.
Finding the right product idea
● Products can be really simple and
profitable at the same time
● The more passive the product, the
better
● Some ideas might work better for
you than others
● When I first started, I tried courses
and learned I didn’t like making them
and switched to software

40.
Ideas should be validated
● Before you build anything,
you want to make sure
there is demand for your
product idea.
● Goal is to answer the
question, “will people be
willing to pay for this?”

41.
How to validate your idea
Find a way to give your customer the end result
without actually creating the product.
Examples:
● AirBNB went door to door taking pictures
● Zappos bought and resold shoes from brick and
mortar stores

42.
How I validated Keyword Chef
● I made a post on Facebook
offering to do keyword research
for people before the software
was available
● Customers sent money via paypal
● Each keyword package was $50
and with 20+ customers, I raised
over $1000 before launch

43.
If someone buys once, it means
you understand their problem
But if someone buys twice, it
means you’re able to solve that
problem

44.
What can you do?
● If you want to create a
course, try a webinar
● If you want to make an
ebook, make a smaller
post
● If you want to make a
plugin, do the work
manually

45.
Finding your first customers
● Keep it simple - you don’t need any funnels or
landing pages
● Just ask your audience. You can send an email or
make a Facebook post
● Remember, goal is to validate demand and get
feedback

46.
Build your Minimal Viable Product (MVP)
● An MVP is the most simple idea of your product
that works
● Try to get feedback as early as possible about
your product before building the whole thing
● The worst thing you can do is spend 6 months
and thousands of dollars building something
that nobody wants.

47.
Simple products > big complicated products
Simple products are:
● Easier to build
● Easier to maintain
● Easier to market

48.
The fear of “what if”
What if customer
asks for something
and I don’t have it?

49.
Three answers
1. You can always add it later
2. Customers will always ask for more
3. You don’t have to add everything - and you
shouldn’t

50.
Your product should solve one
problem and solve it really well.

51.
Your first beta testers
● Doing beta in public can be
overwhelming
● Ask 10 people you trust to
help test the product while
you are developing it
● Use a private facebook
group to share updates

52.
Soft launch your product
● Launches don’t need to be
big events. Sometimes it’s
better if they aren’t.
● You can always launch
more than once. Every
update, you can tell your
audience about it again

53.
How I launched Keyword Chef
● I made a pre recorded
video demo with Loom
and posted it in my
Facebook group
● I didn’t do any funnels or
send any emails - simple!

54.
How can I use
affiliates to
promote my
product?
?

55.
Leveraging Affiliates
● Leveraging affiliates can be a huge
goldmine
● Many of your affiliates will come
from networking with influencers
inside your audience
● Having a great product is one of
the most important factors to
finding good affiliates

56.
How affiliates will promote you
Affiliates will help promote
your product with:
● Blogs
● Youtube channels
● Courses
● Social media

57.
Getting started with your affiliate program
● Set up the program early. If a big influencer asks to be
an affiliate, you want to be ready
● Pay affiliates generously and always on time
● Lifetime recurring commissions are ideal
● 20-50% affiliate payouts are normal depending on the
product

58.
How I use affiliates for Keyword Chef
● To prevent fraud and spam, I only work with influencers
● I don’t advertise my affiliate program. Many influencers
love my product so they ask to be an affiliate
● Using FirstPromoter for tracking and affiliate management
● Payouts are first of every month for the previous month
(makes it easy for me). If you have a lot of refunds, waiting
30 days is better

59.
What to expect from your affiliates
● 80/20 rule: A small handful of
affiliates will bring in most of
the revenue.
● Half of affiliates won’t bring in
anything
● Affiliate tracking isn’t perfect.
Always err on the side of your
affiliates

60.
Key takeaways
● Building and audience isn’t
complicated
● Compassion, dedication, and
being helpful will get you far
● Only two things to do to build
a business: talk to customers
and solve problems!

61.
90% of marketing is just helping
people.

62.
Thank You!
Ben Adler
ben@keywordchef.com
www.KeywordChef.com